On Tuesday night, we watched March of the Penguins. I had been very much looking forward to seeing it. It was not quite what I thought it was going to be however. I was expecting, well, a more upbeat, warm and fuzzy look at the lives of these penguins. In the first part of the movie, the penguins begin to march to the breeding grounds which can be 70 miles away. Morgan Freeman (who did do a nice job as narrator) intoned, "Some of these penguins will not make it to the grounds." I thought...oh that's kind of sad. This was only the beginning. Then the penguins find their mates which was nice and make an egg. Then the females need to go eat something because they used all their food stores to make the egg so they must transfer the eggs to the male penguins. Cue penguin eggs rolling around touching the frozen tundra, Morgan Freeman saying, "Some of these eggs won't make it as the transfer from mom to dad goes wrong." That was sad too. And so then the mommies go get food where one is promptly eaten by a leopard seal. The daddies are with the chicks who have hatched and are very hungry. Some of the chicks then freeze to death because it is Antarctica after all. It was after that scene where there was a cute little fuzzy penguin chick all frozen up that I turned to Rich and said, "Penguin carnage". And I said it a few more times too (male penguins going back to the sea to get food and some won't make it; chicks being attacked by sea gulls etc)! So, it wasn't quite what I was expecting to say the least. It was a well done documentary though I guess. I've never really been one for those National Geographic "Animals in the Wild" shows. It's just a little too real for me. The thought then occurred to me that while that little penguin was freezing to death, the film-makers were right there watching! Of course they couldn't do anything and it's completely natuaral...I'm aware of that. But I wouldn't have been able to just watch. I would have made a terrible animal scientist. I'm just not objective enough that way. Sure weather can cause great devastation, but meteorologists can at least try to help people (and some animals) get out of harm's way. It's kind of like the whole eating meat thing. I like meat. Burgers...steak...chicken...yummy! But I don't want to see the animal from which my meal is going to come from. That's just too close to me. I could SO be a vegetarian, except I like meat too much. I just have to keep it separate in my head!
I've been sick since last Friday but I think I'm finally on the upswing. Rich had to stay home from work yesterday because I was just toast. It's rough being sick and trying to take care of a baby. Things that normally wouldn't be so frustrating become extremely annoying. When I'm so tired and feeling so yucky, it's hard to deal with a fussy little gal. But we've made it through ok. God's grace is sufficient for me...and He's given me what I needed to get through this bump on the road. Elisabeth was 5 months old yesterday. Hard to believe. Next month will be her half birthday and the 1 year anniversary of us moving up here. Hard to believe it's been a year since we've been here. I keep thinking that we've only just moved up here. Sigh... I'm glad to be here most of the time, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like if we had stayed in South Florida. The hardest thing has been missing people that I love. It's not often that kindred spirits find each other and those are the best friendships! Unfortunately, it's been difficult making friends up here. Since I'm not working, I don't get out much to meet people. I tried looking for a Mommy and Me class but there don't seem to be any around here. I'm attempting to get involved with a weather observatory up here so perhaps I will meet some people there. I just need to be more patient I guess!
And on a final note. Big BOO to Netflix. I was all ready to pop in Alias Season 2, Disc 2 on Tuesday. I did in fact pop it in, and my DVD player said "cannot read disc". So I took it out and it is cracked! So I was upset because I wanted to watch it RIGHT THEN. Well...I reported the disc as damaged and a new one was to be sent out the next day. They also got another movie that I returned. So then I get an email saying that Disc 3 will be here Thursday and Disc 2 will be here on Saturday. Um...excuse me...but I can't WATCH disc 3 until I watch disc 2. How annoying is that!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Shut up! I watched March of the Penguins this weekend too! When that bird came down and was attacking the baby penguins, I was yelling at the camera men, "MAKE IT GO AWAY YOU BIG HEARTLESS FILM-MAKERS!" Then, THEN, the other documentary in the special features, where the leopard seal came up on the ice and was trying to catch one of the penguins - he caught one, but it got away. It was all bleeding and stuff, and it was trying to make it back to the breeding ground to feed the chick...AND THE HEARTLESS CAMERAMEN STILL DIDN'T HELP!
I KNOW! I mean really...show a little compassion people! I would probably have dropped the camera and run over to the little chick that was freezing to death and snuggled it up. I think that one sticks in my mind because of a bad dream I had about Elisabeth before she was born. It was a terrible dream. I had left the window open in her room, and the cold air was blowing in and then when I went back to check on her she was all blue and cold. I woke up from that in a sweat. It was awful!
I had a dream the other night that I was on South Beach with Jack and it was really hot, and I had him under my shirt because I was feeding him. I forgot he was under there for about 2 hours, and when I pulled him out he was all red and limp! Terrible.
But the cameramen CAN'T help. It wasn't a "rescue these endangered penguins movie," it was a "look at this amazing part of creation movie" (even with their weak evolutionist attempts). And even if they could've helped...until the end of time, those penguins will still be making that march, getting attacked by birds, leopard seals, and -100 temperatures...just because a human was watching, it should be different? You have to draw the "have dominion over all the earth" line somewhere. I loved the movie and was more entranced by the intricacy of God's creation and the absolute slap in the face the movie delivers to all evolutionists. How is THAT process going to fit in with survival of the fittest? Yes, shed a tear for the seemingly senseless deaths of frozen penguin babies (I did), and realize that the fall probably affected animals too...but then marvel at the crazy process God has laid out and you were blessed to witness. (Not a rant. Just a very strong opinion.)
One last thought...when I was watching the movie, I thought a lot about the cameramen too, but my thought was more about how hard it must have been for them to just stand back and watch the sadder things that happened. Obviously, to go through the horrible conditions to make the movie, you HAD to have a huge love of animals and nature (or are a serious masochist), so they'd be even more effected by the evil leopard seals and birds. I felt really bad for them and admired them a lot at the same time. That's passion! Just a thought...
Post a Comment